Musings on history, life, popular culture, and art by historian Gareth Russell. All opinions, unless otherwise stated, are either my own or possibly Gabrielle de Polignac's.

Friday, 18 June 2010

Summer Reading

So, I have arrived in Connecticut to spend two weeks with my friend, Alexa. I'm off to D.C. for two days to catch-up with some old friends from school and the delightful Courtney Pannell.

With the 7 hour flight from London and a two hour train ride from Grand Central to New Haven, I wanted to bring along some summer reading. Of course, I should probably be spending this time working on my sequel to "Popular," but working on an aeroplane or on the Metro North railroad is pretty difficult! I think I'm going to wait until I reach Alexa's beautiful family home in New Canaan, to start writing by the pool-side, and, of course, to catch-up with her wonderful family, who I had such a happy summer with last year.

In my carrier bag is a copy of Mary Lovell's utterly fantastic, sympathetic and pithy book "The Mitford Girls," a chronicle of the lives of six upper-class English sisters born in the first part of the 20th century. All of them fascinating, many of them controversial. I also brought along Alison Weir's "The Children of England," a great account of the period 1547 - 1558, focusing on the lives of Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I and Lady Jane Grey. I've read it before and I particularly enjoy her account of the "quiet years" for Mary and Elizabeth (if such a thing was possible) during their brother's reign, when they spent their days as great chatelaines and ladies, as well as being powerful landed magnates with immense wealth and vast properties throughout the kingdom.

Upon arrival at Alexa's however, I was even more delighted to discover that two more books were waiting to be added to my summer reading list - "Trianon: A Novel of Royal France" by Elena Maria Vidal and "Eat, Drink & Succeed: Climb Your Way to the Top Using the Networking Power of Social Events" by Laura Schwartz. Two very different books, both gifts from the authors and both wonderfully and very kindly inscribed. I cannot wait to get reading on them both and to post reviews here as soon as possible!

About Me

Gareth Russell is the author of four works of non-fiction, including the critically-acclaimed biography of Queen Catherine Howard, "Young and Damned and Fair", and two novels set in his native Belfast.